Grief is a very strong emotion and it is not the easiest to recognize and get over. There are many stages to effective grief management and that being said, it takes so much longer to recover from because of the many emotions that is felt altogether. It is not just the feeling of loss and sadness; sometimes there is also regret, emptiness, unfairness and so much more. People in grief resort to many ways to deal with the loss of a loved one and the most common response is emotional eating.

1. Eating is a simple activity that gets you preoccupied.

• Some people in the grieving process want to feel busy so as not to think of the recent loss.
• Eating is easy to do and food can be accessed from almost anywhere else, which makes it seem like a very ideal response.
• Feeding your emotions allows you to overeat because you eat even when you are not hungry so the feeling of emptiness or sadness does not really do away. The tendency is to eat more until you feel satisfied.

2. Eating makes you feel relieved or happy.

• Emotional eating may give you a feeling of happiness or relief especially if your food of choice is high in sugar and packed with calories (which is usually the case for emotional eaters) but that feeling is so temporary and fleeting.
• The happy feeling only happens while you eat but you would probably feel sadder or even guilty for overeating afterwards.

3. Eating allows you to remember your loved one.

• And then there is the emotional eating because the food reminds you of your loved one.
• This is quite a common response too. People in the early stages of grief want to hold on to as much of their loved one’s memories for as long as they can, even if it means having their loved ones favourite food regularly.
• This would only be good for you if your dearly departed was a health nut and you would end up eating healthy greens every single day but otherwise, it is not a very good situation to be in.

4. Eating is a quick fix that requires no explanation.

• People who are grieving sometimes just don’t want to talk. And being around others may pressure you to converse when you are not in the mood too.
• This is why some like to eat instead of processing their thoughts and emotions with people. Food feels satisfying and you don’t even have to go through the pleasantries of explaining how you feel.

Emotional eating and grief is not a very good combination. Trying to resolve grief through food only suppresses feelings and may cause you to gain unnecessary weight and put you at risk for other diseases.

Tips

• Emotional eating because of grief tends to become a hard habit to break and in some cases your emotional eating issue continues long after your loved one has gone.
• Going to a grief counsellor or grief therapy is a good idea especially when your loss in untimely and very unexpected.
• Working through your emotions is best done with a qualified person who can open your mind to unbiased thoughts.

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